The Most Important Thing Is You Want to Get Representation
Video Transcribed:
You or your loved one has been charged with a federal offense. What’s next? My name’s Ted Hasse. I’m a Federal Criminal Defense Attorney in Oklahoma at Wirth Law Office. I handle federal criminal matters. Wanted to talk today about what can be expected and kind of what are the next steps once you or a loved one is facing a criminal charge in federal court.
There’s a number of ways you’re going to end up in this circumstance. Right now, I work out of our Tulsa office, which is Northern District Oklahoma.
We’re increasingly seeing lots and lots of cases where the reason the person is facing a federal charge is that what would have previously been a state situation, a state criminal charge, is being picked up by the feds or it’s become federal jurisdiction, because of the fact that either the defendant or the alleged victim is Native American.
Now that it has been judged by the Supreme Court, McGirt case 2020, that much of Eastern Oklahoma is now considered an Indian country, basically Indian reservation jurisdiction for a number of crimes.
Well, essentially all crimes that are committed within Indian country where the victim or the perpetrator or both are Native American. There’s no state jurisdiction for the prosecution. In some cases that may go tribal, it’d be Muskogee Nation, Cherokee, Chickasaw, for example. But there’s a number of cases that even the tribes can’t handle and those go federal.
So what we’re seeing and what we get calls about a lot now are folks that may be in a number of circumstances, for example, they were picked up by the County sheriff, local police department.
They’re being held, then they find that what happens is State, whatever charge they were bringing or were about to bring that gets dropped, and then the feds are stepping in and they find themselves in federal custody.
Another circumstance we’re seeing that I’ll talk about more extensively in another video is people that find themselves on a federal hold.
And that’s a situation where they’re being prosecuted on a state charge, but at the same time, they’re informed in a number of ways, but they might find out there is what’s called a federal hold that indicates that the feds want to get ahold of that person as soon as they’ve resolved whatever is happening at the state.
So, what happens next? The first thing, most important thing is you want to get representation.
The earlier you can get in front of your federal charges, the better. The earlier you have an attorney involved working on your case, the better off your results or are likely to be.
And in some cases, people are finding out outside of the McGirt context, some cases that are just federal cases not having to do with the fact that the defendant or alleged victim are Native American.
Sometimes you get informed by a federal agent. They sometimes call you up and let you know that you have to come in and present yourself. Other times you get a knock on the door, they have a warrant. Sometimes they kick down the door and then you’ve got FBI, ATF, some federal agency that’s investigating you.
The earlier that you can get an attorney involved the better. Certainly, if you can get an attorney involved before an indictment comes down, you’re in a better position.
But if you find out that you have been put in the big leagues and you’re dealing with federal criminal charges it’s important you reach out to an attorney. Again, my name is Ted Hasse. I work out of our Tulsa office. We have offices in Muskogee and Okmulgee, and Oklahoma City as well. Please feel free to give us a call if you need a Federal Criminal Defense Attorney, or If you any have questions, call (918) 932-2800.
